US-12628235-B2 - Communication method, apparatus, and system

US12628235B2US 12628235 B2US12628235 B2US 12628235B2US-12628235-B2

Abstract

This disclosure provides a communication method, apparatus, and system. The method is performed by a remote terminal, which receives first policy information from a policy control function network element, where the first policy information includes a relay mode corresponding to a first application of the remote terminal, determines a first relay mode based on the first policy information, and transmits data of the first application in the first relay mode to a relay device. In the method, the remote terminal selects a relay mode for individual application and deliver data of the individual application in the selected relay mode such that different relay modes can be applied to different applications. In this way, requirements of different applications are met, and collaboration between different relay modes is enabled.

Inventors

ShengFeng XU
Yanmei Yang

Assignees

HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230728
Priority Date: 20210210

Claims (11)

1 . A communication method, applied to a first terminal, the method comprising: receiving first policy information from a policy control function network element, wherein the first policy information indicates a first relay mode corresponding to a first application of the first terminal, and the first relay mode is a layer-3 user equipment (UE)-to-network relay without a non-3GPP interworking function network element (N3IWF); determining the first relay mode for the first application based on the first policy information indicating the first relay mode corresponding to the first application of the first terminal; and transmitting data of the first application in the first relay mode to a relay device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the first relay mode for the first application based on the first policy information comprises: determining the first relay mode for the first application based on a capability of the first terminal and the first relay mode indicated by the first policy information, wherein the capability of the first terminal indicates one or more relay modes supported by the first terminal.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more relay modes supported by the first terminal comprise at least one of: a layer-2 relay mode or a layer-3 relay mode.
4 . The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising: sending a first message to the relay device, wherein the first message comprises information about the first relay mode.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the information about the first relay mode comprises at least one of the following: a relay service code (RSC) corresponding to the first relay mode; or first indication information indicating the first relay mode.
6 . A communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and a non-transitory memory configured to store a computer program, the computer program comprising program instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the communication apparatus to perform: receiving first policy information from a policy control function network element, wherein the first policy information indicates a first relay mode corresponding to a first application of a first terminal, and the first relay mode is a layer-3 user equipment (UE)-to-network relay without a non-3GPP interworking function network element (N3IWF); determining the first relay mode for the first application based on the first policy information indicating the first relay mode corresponding to the first application of the first terminal; and transmitting data of the first application in the first relay mode to a relay device.
7 . The communication apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the program instructions cause the communication apparatus to perform: determining the first relay mode for the first application based on a capability of the first terminal and the first relay mode indicated by the first policy information, wherein the capability of the first terminal indicates one or more relay modes supported by the first terminal.
8 . A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program code for execution by a processor of a terminal, the computer program code comprising instructions for: receiving first policy information from a policy control function network element, wherein the first policy information indicates a first relay mode corresponding to a first application of the terminal, and the first relay mode is a layer-3 user equipment (UE)-to-network relay without a non-3GPP interworking function network element (N3IWF); determining the first relay mode for the first application based on the first policy information indicating the first relay mode corresponding to the first application of the terminal; and transmitting data of the first application in the first relay mode to a relay device.
9 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the determining the first relay mode for the first application based on the first policy information comprises: determining the first relay mode for the application based on a capability of the first terminal and the first relay mode indicated by the first policy information, wherein the capability of the first terminal indicates one or more relay modes supported by the first terminal.
10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the one or more relay modes supported by the first terminal comprise at least one of: a layer-2 relay mode or a layer-3 relay mode.
11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , the computer program code comprising instructions for: sending a first message to the relay device, wherein the first message comprises at least one of the following: a relay service code (RSC) corresponding to the first relay mode; or first indication information indicating the first relay mode.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2022/074817, filed on Jan. 28, 2022, which claims priority to International Application No. PCT/CN2021/076527, filed Feb. 10, 2021. The disclosures of the aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a communication method, apparatus, and system. BACKGROUND Currently, device-to-device (D2D) communication allows direct communication between user equipments (UE). For example, when a user equipment (for example, remote UE) is outside coverage of a communication network, or quality of communication between the user equipment and an access network device in the communication network is poor, the user equipment may indirectly communicate with the communication network based on D2D communication, in other words, through a relay (for example, relay UE), and the relay forwards data transmitted between the remote UE and the network. For another example, when a user equipment (for example, source UE) cannot directly communicate with another user equipment (for example, target UE), the source UE may communicate with the target UE in a relay mode. To be specific, a relay UE forwards data between the source UE and the target UE. Currently, there may be two modes of indirect communication (to be specific, the remote UE accesses the network through the relay UE for communication or the source UE communicates with the target UE through the relay UE), and the modes include: a layer-2 relay (L2 relay) mode and a layer-3 relay (L3 relay) mode. That the remote UE accesses the network through the relay UE for communication is used as an example. The layer-2 relay mode means that the relay UE forwards uplink and downlink data and signaling between the remote UE and the access network device through a layer 2 (for example, an adaptation layer), and the network may directly control the remote UE. The layer-3 relay mode means that the relay UE forwards uplink and downlink data of the remote UE through internet protocol (TP) routing. The layer-2 relay mode and the layer-3 relay mode are different in terms of data security, service continuity, quality of service, and the like. That is, the layer-2 relay mode and the layer-3 relay mode can provide different service performance. Further, in the case of coexistence of the layer-2 relay mode and the layer-3 relay mode, how to select a relay mode becomes an urgent problem to be resolved. SUMMARY This application provides a communication method, apparatus, and system, to select a relay mode for indirect communication in the case of coexistence of a layer-2 relay mode and a layer-3 relay mode. According to a first aspect, embodiments of this application provide a communication method. The method is applied to a scenario (a user equipment-to-network relay (U2N relay) scenario) in which a remote terminal communicates with a network via a relay terminal. The method may be applied to the remote terminal or a chip in the remote terminal. That the method is performed by the remote terminal is used as an example, and the method includes: The remote terminal receives first policy information from a policy control function network element, where the first policy information includes a relay mode corresponding to a first application of the remote terminal; the remote terminal determines a first relay mode based on the first policy information; and the remote terminal transmits data of the first application in the first relay mode. In the foregoing manner, the remote terminal may obtain, based on the first policy information determined by the policy control function network element, the relay mode corresponding to the first application of the remote terminal. For example, the relay mode corresponding to the first application of the remote terminal may include at least one relay mode. Therefore, the remote terminal may determine, based on the first policy information, a corresponding relay mode, namely, the first relay mode, when the remote terminal transmits the data of the first application. In the case of coexistence of a layer-2 relay mode and a layer-3 relay mode, relay modes selected by the remote terminal for different applications are controlled or recommended based on the first policy information delivered by the policy control function network element, and the remote terminal selects the relay modes for indirect communication. In this way, requirements of different applications are met, and collaboration between different relay modes is enabled. In a possible implementation, the remote terminal may determine, based on the relay mode corresponding to the first application of the remote terminal, the first relay mode in the relay mode corresponding to the first application. This helps reduce complexity of determining a first relay mode by